Toxicity in Post-Adolescence

The other day I came across some angst-ridden poems that I feverishly wrote in my youth. I'm still a youth. But you know what I mean. I wrote this one line about friends/people in my life:

"[they] want me to drown
only to wring the water from my clothes"

I mean for all the pessimism that it reeks and all the adolescent-in-pain stuff aside, I still know what I meant. I was talking about those people in our lives who are a bit... Toxic. They say things, or do things, that are hurtful... And then they are there to pick up the pieces as it were. It sounds incredibly abusive, when I read over that sentence, but is it a natural tendency? To want to be "honest"/take you down a peg/be the black cloud of reason and then caretake for the person. "Yeah, you might just be a stout little freak [note the feeding off my personal insecurities]... but that's what I like about you". Compliment? Sort of. I guess.

What's bringing on the talk about "toxic friends"? Because I've been avoiding one of them these days. There are many positive things about our relationship, but others just leave me feeling a little bit vulnerable and completely hesitant to answer the phone.

So anyway, that's my little rant for the day. Does everyone have "toxic friends"? Aren't we all just a little bit toxic?

Holy shit. Do I sound like Britney Spears?